Visual Development Artist

Help develop the visual world of an animated film.

What does a Visual Development Artist do?

A Visual Development Artist is an essential part of an animated movie’s creative team, designing and developing the “look” of a film. It’s up to the Visual Development Artist to explore the possibilities of the animated world, and to come up with something that’s appropriate for the storyline, and the intended audience. Once you come up with a defined vision for the film, it falls to you, as the Visual Development Artist, to generate and maintain that vision – with characters, backgrounds, environments, colors, lighting, and even props.

You have to be an idea machine, contributing suggestions for an entire world that may not even exist. But that’s the fun of it – you are literally creating a world for the animated action to play out in. You can also pitch story ideas, if something works really well with a particular animation.

You work with a variety of departments – Production Design, Art Direction, and the rest of Visual Development – to take the ideas you have from pre-development to full-blown production ready pieces. Also, be ready to assist with troubleshooting, and to work in either 2D or 3D – know how to do both if you really want to dominate in this field.